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Cheryll Burgess, in issuing a clarion call for an" ecological literary criticism," observes that" while other social movements, like the civil rights and women's liberation movements of the sixties and seventies, have had a significant impact in shaping literary studies, the environmental movement of the same era has not"(1989, 1). Having gathered momentum throughout the 1980s, the environmental movement, particularly as it is manifested by ecofeminism, will not only make its existence felt in literary studies in the 1990s but has the potential to alter such studies irrevocably. Does this mean, then, that since literary theory and criticism are coming belatedly to ecofeminism, the educational exchange must occur in a single direction? I don't think so. I would like to suggest here that, first, certain areas of literary theory, in particular the dialogic method adumbrated by the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin and its development by feminist critics, can be immensely beneficial to the further development and elaboration of ecofeminist philosophy; and, second, that a more forceful and integrated recognition of the role and place of literature as one element of ecofeminist activism can be gained.